1. Technical Field
The subject matter described herein generally relates to the field of character animation and in particular to a system and method that enables customization and animation of characters.
2. Background Information
Conventionally, character animation has been used in video games. Character animation in video games typically uses a fixed model and standardized characters. Conventionally, assets, which include elements that are not part of a core body, are created for a limited number of character types. Conventionally, animation of characters is performed as a series of bitmap images that are used to convey motion. Conventional bitmap images are difficult to scale without distortion and without impairing smooth animation.
Vector graphics has evolved as an alternative to bitmap images. Vector graphics may be scaled proportionally. However, scaling vector graphics at an arbitrary ratio creates unattractive visual artifacts, such as squashing, skewing and stretching.
There is presently no system for adding animation to custom generated, two-dimensional web based and arbitrarily sized characters.
Graphics processing is a limited resource on mobile devices. To dynamically generate custom characters, assets and animations, one needs substantial graphics processing power, which is often not available on mobile devices.
Bandwidth is a limited resource on mobile devices. As animations are typically delivered as a sequence of bitmap images, there is no simple way to animate an infinite number of characters with set animations as a pre-rendered asset.